Artificial Intelligence

Should Data Centers Go Seasteading?

With their reputation figuratively underwater, data centers might be going literally underwater too.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 9.14.2026 11:17 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Illustration: Midjourney)

Hating data centers might be misguided, but it's also ubiquitous, at least in the U.S. And politicians have been capitalizing on this to score populist points by pushing through burdensome regulations. What's an artificial intelligence company to do?

Go seasteading, possibly.

"Some developers are now exploring the ocean as a new location for AI infrastructure in the hopes that underwater data centers could improve energy use and cooling efficiency while using less fresh water and land area than onshore buildings," writes University of North Carolina Greensboro management professor Nir Kshetri, who studies the social and environmental effects of emerging technology. He calls under-the-sea data centers "a promising new approach for supporting the growth of AI."

You are reading Sex & Tech, from Elizabeth Nolan Brown. Get more of Elizabeth's sex, tech, bodily autonomy, law, and online culture coverage.

LinkedIn

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Email(Required)

SUBSCRIBE

Underwater data centers would be not technically be "seasteaders"—autonomous entities based far enough offshore that they're not subject to the rules of any government.

Even if underwater data centers could be based physically far enough from shore that they're not in anyone's national waters—not necessarily impossible, but impractical, costly, and a logistical nightmare—they would still be subject to various rules of international waters and would still need cables connecting........

© Reason.com